(02-21-2015 01:01 PM)chatcat Wrote:  Anyone know whatever became of Murray Bartow?

From Wiki:

Murry Bartow (born August 18, 1961) is an American college basketball coach and the current the head men's coach at East Tennessee State University. Prior to accepting the head coaching job at ETSU, he served as the head coach for University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) from 1996 to 2002, succeeding his father Gene Bartow, the creator of the Blazers basketball program. At UAB, he compiled a 103–83 record, that included 48 conference wins.

Bartow's first season at ETSU brought division and conference regular season titles and the Southern Conference Tournament championship. The team finished 27–6 (15–1 conference) and ended their season in an 80–77 NCAA tournament opening round loss to the University of Cincinnati. Bartow was named the SoCon Coach of the Year.

Injuries and poor play the next season resulted in a 10–19 finish, in what turned out to be the Bucs final season in the Southern Conference. The following season, the Bucs move to the Atlantic Sun Conference resulted in a disappointing 15–13 record.

Bartow responded by leading the Buccaneers to the regular season Atlantic Sun title in 2006–07 with a 24–10 overall record, despite the graduation of three starters. Bartow was named Atlantic Sun Coach of the Year.

Born in Warrensburg, Missouri, Bartow holds a BA from UAB and a master's degree from Indiana University.

UC was ranked in the top 10 last year.

I was at a bar after the Crosstown Shootout and some of the old UC players were there. I overheard one who was incredulous that UC could lose to X like that. His teams lost 3 of 4 to them.

The '98 team was good and I loved them. Of course, they lost to X by 20 and lost in the second round of the tourney.

(02-20-2015 10:22 PM)jarr Wrote:  Those teams were still fun to watch and had all kinds of characters and names that everyone recognized. One big difference from now and then, is everybody knew who Ruben Patterson, Bobby Brannen, Mel Levitt, and Kenyon Martin were. Go around this city anymore and outside of the hardcore fans, no one knows who Caupain, Sanders, Ellis, even are. A lot of my UK, UL, and XU friends don't know these guys but can still name all of these players.

This is dead on. UC teams of the 90's had panache. I think alot of that had to do with Huggins larger than life persona and alot had to do with a decade of being ranked in the Top 25. Whatever the reason, they were alot more fun to watch and follow.